


Ushaan

by DaharMaster



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Andorian, First Person Perspective, Gen, Military
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 12:00:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4605921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaharMaster/pseuds/DaharMaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set just after the events of Star Trek: Enterprise, Commander Thavos of the Andorian Imperial Guard is issued with a set of cryptic and highly irregular orders. He and a small team must infiltrate the Capitol City on Romulus and kill Admiral Valdore, the man responsible for abducting one of the Aenar a few years prior, as a form of revenge.</p><p>Even from the start, he has his suspicions that not only will this mission be his last, but that there is more going on than meets the eye. On at least one account, he's right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ushaan

_Ushaan_. There's no translation that even approximates it in any tongue I know of, but my favorite, or at least the most appropriate for this story would be the Rigelian _ar-sehe-da_ , or "revenge for dishonor". It was late in the year 3084 by the Andorian reckoning, that's approximately mid-2156 for any Humans or other Federation members reading this. Not that anyone ever will.

Things had just begun to settle down, the Federation was coming into its own, and there were even rumors of the Imperial Guard being disbanded. That's when the orders came down. I still don't know who issued and authorized them, but I have my suspicions, and I know that the orders weren't sanctioned. I knew then, too. I didn't care. None of us did.

Prior to that, all we had been told was that the Romulans, who were like myths and legends to us, had attacked some of our ships, but with the help of the newly discovered Aenar, we triumphed. The communique that arrived at the barracks that night, however, told us the whole story. They had taken one of us, Aenar, Andorian, it didn't matter. The Romulans, damn them, had managed to sneak onto our world and abduct one of us, then had tortured him and turned him against us.

Beyond that, the briefing was simple, just one word, a name, and a location: _Ushaan_ , Admiral Valdore, Romulus. Below that were a pair of rendezvous coordinates and a timestamp less than eight hours away. The final line was a set of simple instructions.

"Bring only four of your best. Be prepared for stealth insertion."

I could already feel the hate for the Romulans boiling over inside me, but I also felt honored to be selected for such a mission. I knew even then, however, that it would likely be my last. The chances of survival were slim, and even if we did manage to get back to Andoria alive, we'd be stripped of our ranks and sent packing. I could not have cared less. I was doing a service for all of Andoria and I felt proud.

The selection process was... well it was painful. To pick only four out of the sixty four under my command, all elite commandos, was near impossible. The first choice was obvious enough, my second-in-command Lieutenant Yala. I knew I would need someone I could trust implicitly at my back, and she was it. Next was Sergeant Major Savin, a man known for a certain ruthless efficiency I suspected we would come to rely on. Knowing I would need a stealth specialist, someone who could slip in and out of just about anywhere undetected, I had no choice but to select Lance Corporal Traes, who didn't always bring honor to the uniform, but I knew I could count on to remain hidden. The final choice was the most difficult, but it really came down to what I thought we would need the most and that was a sharpshooter, which left me with no choice. By leaps and bounds the best marksman in the outfit was Sergeant Araan, a quiet, easy going man, who could say a great deal by just a twitch of his antennae.

We all chose to eschew any armor, choosing instead only to wear our black fatigues and darkened stealth cloaks. Each of us brought our _tamaal_ , or ice chisel that had become the signature weapon of our outfit, really a long modified stiletto. Yala, Traes, and myself armed ourselves with cut down pulse carbines, and I also strapped my powerful phase pistol to my hip. Savin chose instead a large autofire plasma cannon that only someone of his size and brawn could lug around on a stealth mission. Meanwhile, unsurprisingly, Araan brought his finely crafted disruptor rifle. Filling some duffel bags, we packed a few extra supplies; medical kits, surplus ammunition, rations, communications devices, etc.

Finally, we wished the rest of the company farewell and they wished us good luck and we set off for the rendezvous on foot, knowing a vehicle might draw too much attention. The coordinates pointed to a deep ravine far outside of town and we had to double time it to make it in time. Wind tore at our cloaks and ice bit at our faces and exposed skin. It was invigorating, like an icy glass of Andorian ale.

I didn't know what the weather on Romulus was like, but I knew it was much warmer and so I savored every crunch of snow and ice beneath my boots, every gust of chill wind. Still, the covert nature of what we were doing, and some of my suspicions made me anxious and I told the team to spread out and stick to cover. Most had already flipped their cloaks over to the lighter side and they seemed to disappear into the terrain. Only because I had spent most of my adult life fighting beside them could I discern their presence, with the sole exception of Traes, who I lost track of altogether.

As we neared the ravine, really a wide crevasse between two glacial ice sheets, I gathered the team together with two perfect imitation calls of an ice falcon looking for a mate. With all of us crouched together behind a large snow drift about half a kilometer from where the coordinates had lead us, I sent Traes and Araan to scout the ravine itself. Traes smiled, made a glib comment and disappeared while Araan only nodded his head almost imperceptibly and vanished after Traes.

Perhaps twenty minutes later they both returned and I fixed them with an expectant look.

"Someone's waiting for us," Traes announced with a wicked grin. I turned to Araan, who I knew would have had a better view through the scope of his rifle and he begrudgingly spoke.

"Lone female, no visible weapon, no sign of backup. Civilian. Possibly... well... there was ice on my lens," he trailed off and I put a firm hand on his shoulder, shocking him slightly.

"I need to know what you saw, even what you think you saw," I explained, my antennae lowered in intensity. He nodded slowly.

"Aenar," he said flatly. I was shocked at first, but then it began to make sense. We were avenging not just Andoria's honor, but a poor helpless Aenar as well, it made sense that they would want to be involved.

"Right," I replied, "I want everyone to take up positions along both sides of the ravine, but _stay hidden_. Once you're all in place, I'll go down to see what's what. Hold your fire until I give the signal and don't come out of hiding until I order it. Understand?"

There was a chorus of affirmative noises and the team dispersed. I gave them nearly an hour to get into position and by that time time was running out so I hastened across the snowy ice shelf I had been waiting on and towards the slope down into the ravine. Just before coming into view of the ravine, however, I drew my _tamaal_ from my boot and held it tight against my right forearm so that only the keenest of eyes could detect it.

Sure enough, standing alone in the center of the ravine at its lowest point was a lone figure. From a distance I could only make out a few details, especially as the figure seemed to nearly blend perfectly in with the ice and snow around her. As I approached I could tell she was watching me and I could make out more and more detail.

She wore a flowing diaphanous gossamer gown of white which matched her pale, near-translucent skin and hair. She was taller than most other women I had met on Andoria, but had a certain fragility about her. I was still at least twenty meters away when it happened.

[Well met, Commander Thavos,] a soft yet icy female voice said in my mind. I froze.

[Please,] it continued, [Come closer.] 

"Who are you?" I demanded angrily, holding my ground, but he wind seemed almost to tear my voice away.

[My name is Salye,] the voice resounded through my head, [Come closer and I will explain more.] In that moment, curiosity got the better of me and I found myself trudging through the deep snow towards her. Finally, when I was only an arm's length from her, I halted. In that moment all doubts were washed away. She truly was one of the Aenar, even down to her blank sightless eyes.

"I... apologize," she said as I stopped before her, this time the voice coming from her mouth, "I did not realize you would react so... negatively to telepathic communication." I held up a hand to stop any further apologies and cleared my throat.

"Let's cut to the chase," I said in a low voice, "What am I doing here and what do you want?"

"I want to see my cousin's death avenged, but I cannot do it myself, thus I want to help you. You are here because... a mutual friend thinks you are the best choice for the job," Salye explained hesitantly, speaking as if using her voice was still a new and unfamiliar practice.

"Your cousin was..." I began.

"Gareb, the one they took," she finished for me, nodding and blinking tears away.

"Listen..." I sighed, "Aren't your people pacifists? How are you supposed to help?" As I said it, a hardness, like an icy shell seemed to come over her and she looked up at me defiantly.

"With my powers, I will be able to sense the one who did this, I will be able to find him. I can fool the minds of others, make them forget, or misremember, and I can sense many things," she replied sternly, "For instance, I know you have four soldiers up on the ridges to either side of us, not to mention a knife in your hand."

I blinked in astonishment.

"It wouldn't work, you know," she said with a small smile and extended a delicate looking hand, "Go on, touch my hand." I hesitated a moment, then reached out with my left hand and went to place it upon her palm. Just as my fingers made contact with her wrist, her whole body seemed to disintegrate and disperse, like snow cast into a strong gale, disappearing entirely. Girlish laughter to my left made me wheel about, _tamaal_ out and at the ready.

Salye sat on a frozen ice boulder some ten meters away and was smiling at me.

"An illusion," she explained.

"Don't you _ever_ do that to me again," I growled.

"My apologies, I just needed to prove to you that I am worth bringing along, not that you have much choice in the matter," she told me. I sighed, my breath a frosty cloud in the air before me.

"Let's say I believe you..." I began warily, "How are we getting to Romulus? Not just getting there, but remaining undetected?"

"That... even I don't know," she admitted, a tad nervously, "Our friend promised to take care of it, said all I had to do was activate this transponder when everyone was gathered." She held out her hand, revealing a small blinking device. I sighed again. I didn't like it and I was really beginning to have my doubts, but the hatred for the Romulans, for what they'd done, and seeing the pain on the poor girl's face as she recalled her lost cousin's name made me realize I had no other choice.

"Alright, I'll bring my people down here, but no tricks," I warned her. She nodded silently. I circled my fist in the air and then brought it down to waist height, flattening my palm as I did so. No sooner had I done that than four snow drifts, two on each ridge, detached themselves from the surrounding snow and ice and began making their way to the slope that entered the ravine.

Within minutes, the whole team was gathered. I quickly briefed them on what was going on then looked to Salye.

"Alright," I told her, "Do it." She depressed a small button on the transponder and we waited. At first it seemed nothing happened, then right in the middle of us all something began to materialize as if from a transporter. It was a small cylinder and as it finished materializing it began to rise into the air.

Suddenly there was a blinding flash and the last thing I recall was the familiar sensation of a phaser burst set on high stun.

**Author's Note:**

> I realize that the Andorians have been rather expanded upon in various novels and role-playing supplements, but I have access to none of those so I'm basing everything off my own speculations and the canon set forth by the television series, specifically Enterprise.


End file.
